What We Do

Based in the Chiang Rai Province of Northern Thailand, Center for Girls provides life skills, leadership training, human rights education, and counseling programs to members of the local communities.

Together with schools, police, businesses and the village communities, Center for Girls creates strong networks through which children, women and youth who are at risk of exploitation and abuse can be identified, protected, and empowered.

Center for Girls envisions a world where women and children are safe to live their lives in equality, with dignity and humanity.

Human Trafficking

Human trafficking, human rights abuses for the purposes of forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation, is an ongoing problem in Thailand and it is up to NGOs, GOs, and local communities to put a stop to this terrible crime. Chiang Khong, a small town on the Laos border in Northern Thailand, is home to a number of different ethnic minority groups and hill tribes. Members of the rural community on both sides of the border are very poor, and many are stateless or lack opportunities to access education. Because of this, Chiang Khong acts as an origin, transit point, and destination for human trafficking activities.

Those who fall victim to human trafficking are often tricked or coerced into work they did not choose and experience withholding of travel documents, passports, migrant registration cards, ID cards, and work permits by employers. They are also often subject to debt bondage: they are forced to pay back what they “owe,” plus interest, for their purchase. In this way, it is almost impossible for men and women to escape their traffickers without help. Learn more about human trafficking in Thailand.

Women’s Leadership

While over the last few decades, Thai government and non-governmental organizations have implemented a number of initiatives to address gender inequality and GBV in Thailand, troubling realities still remain. Thai culture still holds a very traditional, limiting view of women, and violence against women and girls remains at an unacceptably high level. Furthermore, of about 800,000 live births per year given by young women, a quarter of them are from unplanned pregnancies of adolescent mothers ages 15-19. This affects girls’ ability to continue their education and become leaders in their communities.

CFG Team campaigning against GBV, trafficking, and inequality

Empowering women as leaders changes the fabric of society, including more voices in important conversations and helping to create policies that are more equitable toward women. It is simply unacceptable that decisions about the lives of women and girls are made without input of women themselves. Women and girls are capable of leading alongside men and boys, but we must break down the barriers in their way.